Debt Repaid
by Radiant Silver Star
Summary: "I'm not good enough to save her. I'm not able." In the Keyblade Wielder's darkest moment, his own heart is not enough to help him. But there is another heart... A heart that owes the hero, and perhaps the only heart that can save him now. One-shot.


Debt Repaid

"So, you finally made it. About time. I've been waiting for you," Riku sneered. His tone became contemplative. "We've always been rivals, haven't we?"

_Rivals…_ Sora thought. _Why can't we just be friends? Why?_

"You've always pushed me as I've always pushed you." There was nothing but contempt in the boy's voice. It hurt Sora to hear, to feel how his best friend thought nothing of him now. Sora murmured his name in a plea for him to stop this madness, but Riku plowed on, not heeding Sora. "But it all ends here. There can't be two Keyblade masters."

Something deep inside Sora stirred, and some unbidden thought-no, not really a thought, but a raw, unworded emotion that brought forth a distinct sense of irony stemming from some ancient memory Sora didn't know. Deep in his heart, there was something that wanted to wake. Some sleeping part of him-if he could just reach it…. But his curiosity was pushed aside for now.

"What are you talking about?" Sora asked dispassionately, trying to focus on Riku's words through his muddling distraction. His heart was troubling him from every angle. A hopeless feeling of being stuck with no way out began to sprout, and every time he tried to shove it down it shoved back, trying to grow within him. _Darkness… I can't let it in!_ he thought wildly before forcing his attention back.

"Let the Keyblade choose…"

_Wait, what?_ Sora was too occupied; he couldn't think straight, everything was happening too quickly!

"…its true master!" Riku's voice boomed authoritatively.

Sora's frenzied thoughts reached fever pitch, then the Keyblade was shaking in his hand and all his thoughts came to a complete dead stop when he could no longer feel its weight. Donald and Goofy's sounds of disbelief were all Sora could really process, and without them he might not have been able to figure out that his Keyblade had really left him. Seconds later it reappeared with a flash of light in Riku's hands, and Sora's hopelessness grew just a little. Nothing about this made sense. After all he'd gone through, all he'd suffered through, all he'd lost for this Keyblade, this mission, and now it was gone? It had chosen the hero of darkness?

"But that's impossible. How did this happen?" Sora asked incredulously, mostly to himself. "I'm the one who fought my way here with the Keyblade!"

"You were just the delivery boy. Sorry, your part's over now." Riku's offhanded comments were aimed at Sora, not to him. The Keyblade had given Riku a smugness, as though even thinking of Sora was an activity that was beneath the 'true' Keyblade master. The ugly weed of doubt couldn't be suppressed anymore. "Here, go play hero with this." A wooden sword like the one Sora used to play with landed at his feet. It reminded him sickeningly of the days at the island, the days when he was forever a step behind his best friend and chief rival. It seemed as though Riku had been carrying it around-he had been planning this all along. It was in Riku's agenda to cause his best friend to fall.

And fall he did. On his hands and knees with the sword lying mockingly in front of him, he heard but did not see heavy, confident footsteps as Riku walked away. But what Sora was least prepared for was the footsteps that followed.

"Goofy. Let's go," Donald said with bitterness in his voice. Sora's heart skipped a beat, but not in the way that it did whenever he looked at Kairi-oh, God. Kairi.

_I'll never see Kairi again. I'm not good enough to save her. I'm not able. Kairi…_

"We have to remember our mission." Donald's voice held suppressed emotions that Sora didn't care to identify.

"Oh. Well, I know the King told us we have to follow the Key and all… But…"

Sora knew Goofy was looking at him, but he didn't care. _Go ahead and leave me,_ he thought. _Leave me just like everyone else did._

With barely any hesitation, Goofy's irregular gait joined the sound of Donald's pitter-patter feet.

"Sora, sorry."

And with that, Sora was left alone in the silence. For a few seconds, he let his feelings eat him up. He relished the silence, and supposed the quiet would become who he was. Sora would be soundlessness, the quality no one has trouble ignoring, something broken so easily, broken as soon as its name was spoken.

-Xx-

Caught within a similar silence, the blonde-haired boy called Ven slumbered. For ten years now he'd been resting inside this friendly heart, taking solace in its unwavering warmth. But now doubt plagued it with the very faintest traces of darkness. He was close to waking, but sleep still lay heavily upon him. After a long time of continued silence and a struggle for some kind of consciousness, Ven slowly lifted his head. The troubled heart he resided within had disturbed his rest, if only for a moment. From it there was a cry for help, a wavering pause in the sustained song of light.

His mind was tangled up, and he couldn't form coherent words on his own, but he could with some effort bring forth words he had spoken a long time ago if he looked to his memories for help.

"_It's always about your _friends_, isn't it?"_

"_At least I have some!"_

Static.

"_I've become a part of their heart, just as they've become a part of mine."_

"Sora…" Ven murmured. "That's how… That's how you win… Keep your…heart strong… Your friends are… still…"

Static.

"_My friends are my power, and I'm theirs!"_

"That's your… power… Your… strength…"

With a smile and a sigh, Ven faded back into sleep again, and as he did he sensed another heart; it was as though someone else had taken refuge in the stronghold of Sora's heart. A heart filled with light like many of the people Ven had encountered in another far-away life. A heart that seemed to smile at Ven's words.

-xX-

Within the hero, a tiny seed, a suggestion, had been planted alongside the doubt. As the Beast helped him, it grew until it outshone the weed and its darkness slowly faded away. Far away, in another world, another plane, the lips of a sleeping boy called Ven turned up in what was almost a smile. His debt to the World's hero was repaid.

END: "Debt Repaid"

* * *

_Thank you for reading._

_-RSS_


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